To the Strongest Degree
by Music is the Song of Life
Summary: The never ending nightmares gnawed at her very subconscious. She couldn't bear to be witness to the demise of her friendship once again. But what could she possibly do this time to make sure it doesn't happen exactly as it happened?


_Simon stood over the mound of dirt deep within the nearby forest. He figured she would like it out here. She had always loved it here, deep within nature, surrounded by her friends. Simon sadly smiled as the memories flooded his mind; her face, her hair, her smile. She remembered her friendship and more. And that was when it happened. He broke down. His mind began to swim with thoughts. HE had to go back. He just had to._

_ Swinging the shovel over his shoulder, he walked away from the gravesite, the tears stinging at the corners of his eyes. Kelly watched as Simon stood a few feet away. She felt the sadness deep within her as well. After all, she had been her closest friend. She never thought it would end like this. She never thought they'd end of burying one of their own. One of the misfits. When Nikki had died, they had felt the pain, but it was nothing compare to this. This was a stronger more deep rooted sadness. The loss of a close friend. Growing tired of the deep sadness welling within in her, Kelly stepped carefully across the foliage and stood next to Simon, placing a consoling hand on his shoulder. Acknowledging her presence, he placed a hand on his shoulder, encasing her hand as he did so._

_ "At least she's 'appy now Simon," She tried to explain, tears now stinging at the corners of her eyes as well, "She won't 'ave to wander around like a zombie, yeah."_

_Simon smiled at the thought, but understood what Kelly meant. He would miss her terribly still. And nothing could change that. There was no question about it now._

_He had to go back._

* * *

The nights were filled with nightmares. Cold sweats, ragged breaths, dark figures haunted her mind. Blood drowned her subconscious. She saw glimpses of herself, except it wasn't her. She didn't recognize herself. She seemed different somehow; older and wiser. And more powerful. She was surrounded by others she didn't recognize either. Then quick flashes, lightening strikes, blood, gunshots. Then, spirits she didn't recognize, and an improvised grave, before flashing back the beginning, where it all starts again.

It was these dreams that Lydia awoke to every day and these visions that clouded her every thought. The young teen, sat up in her bed and glanced around her bedroom. The bedroom, though quite familiar, seemed so foreign. Her mind was fuzzy and she knew something just wasn't right. Brushing the feeling from her mind, she roused herself from her bed and made her way to the bathroom, where she quickly washed and readied herself for the day. Today marked the start of 200 hours. 200 long, grueling hours to serve out the terms of her ASBO. Complete bullshit as far as she was concerned. But there was this nagging feeling deep within Lydia's gut, something that told her there was something else going on. Something was different…

That feeling continued to gnaw at Lydia as she found herself entering the strange locker room of the Wertham Community Centre. Everything moved in slow motion it seemed as she made her way across the room toward an empty locker with an orange jumpsuit in hand. She unloaded her personal belongings; her purse and her clothes, as well as a gold chain with a sparrow charm attached to it; before changing into the bright orange coveralls. Rolling the sleeves to above her elbow, before zipping the suit to just above her low cut camisole, leaving the top of her tits exposed. She assessed herself in the mirror, removing a small smudge in her eyeliner. Squinting at the rest of her appearance, she deemed herself acceptable,

"Are you almost finished?" Lydia whipped around, startled and came face to face with a girl with frizzy hair and hazel eyes who looked downright irritated.

"Uh, yeah. Yeah I'm done."

"Well then, get the fuck out of the way, yeah?"

Lydia gave the girl a look, before walking away, addressing the girl with a not so subtle, "Piss off," before exiting the locker room. She walked outside, to come face to face with her probation worker, Tony.

"Where are you going?" he questioned, albeit a little miffed.

"I'm dressed," Lydia replied, furrowing her brow in irritation, "I'm goin' outside."

Seemingly shocked at her reply, even more so at the fact that she had followed directions without much argument, Tony nodded in her direction and headed towards his office, where he started scraping papers and folders together. Lydia took her chance and escaped to the outside air. The day was cloudy, as usual, and Jadyn reveled in the crisp air. Her tanned skin seemingly glowed in the cloudy light and her brown eyes shone. She loved being outside. It was the one place she could focus, the one place where she didn't need control. No control over herself, or her emotions, her family. Everything out here, it was out of her hands. And she enjoyed it.

* * *

At some point during her deep reverie, the other six offenders had shown up outside, allowing a lot of unnecessary racket to enter her subconscious. She opened her eyes and looked up at the sky, frustrated. These were going to be the longest 200 hours she'd ever experience.

"This is it," Tony started after a few moments, beginning his 'paying back the community' speech, "This is your chance to do something positive. Give something back. You can help people. You can really make a _difference _to people's lives."

_I highly doubt that,_ Lydia thought, rolling her eyes. Leaning back against the railing surrounding the community centre, she turned to survey the remaining young offenders. At one end, she spotted a timid looking, serial killer of a boy...or maybe he only looked like a serial killer, with his bulging ice blue eyes and formal haircut. There was the right cunt from earlier, makeup reapplied and cleavage visible for all to see, standing next to a…what would be a god way to describe her….chav, hair brushed back into a tight ponytail that made Lydia's head ache just looking at it. Her makeup was applied so thick, that Lydia was sure she could slap it straight of her face.

Along her other side, she noticed a rather witty, rather annoying Irish mop with a loud mouth and a stupid smile standing next to another chav, this one much more blatant with his multiple chains and flat-brimmed cap. His angry scowl went onto further prove his wannabe status and she rolled her eyes at his appearance at his other arm was the infamous Curtis Donovan, some runner guy. Lydia recognized him from the papers.

"That's what community service is all about. There are people out there who think you're scum. You have the opportunity to prove them wrong."

Lydia rolled her eyes at the probation worker. He really was taking the piss. Sure, none of them had done anything…terrible, or so Lydia assumed, but that didn't mean they be able to change anyone's perspective of them. People would think what they wanted to think. And that's how it would always be.

"Yeah, but what if they're right?" the Irish mop began. He put a hand on a wannabe chav's shoulder, whilst pointing in his general direction, "I mean, no offense, but I'm thinking some people are just born criminals."

"You looking to get stabbed?" the wannabe chav... Lydia thought she'd heard his name before…Gary…snapped back.

"You see my point there!" Curly said to the probation worker, who raised his eyebrows. A phone rang, and Alisha, the frizzy haired cunt from before, delved into her pocket to seize it, answering with a, "Hey."

"It doesn't matter what you've done in the past," the probation worker tried to continue, but was being distracted by Alisha's conversation. "Hey!" he said to her. "Excuse me! Hello, I'm still talking here!"

"What? I thought you'd finished!" she said irritably, raising her hands in a kind of shrugging gesture.

"Do you see my lips still moving? That means I'm still talking!" Tony retorted, now becoming more and more irate.

"Yeah but you coulda been yawning, or chewing," Curly…or was his name Nathan…snapped back, quite pleased with himself. Lydia couldn't help but scoff. His wit was something to be feared.

"End the call! Hang up!" Tony demanded. Ignoring his initial command, Alisha carried on her conversation for a few more seconds before hanging up. Meanwhile, Nathan had already christened poor Simon Bellamy as the 'Weird Kid,' and blown a kiss at Gary, who then threatened to shit down his neck….Wait, Simon Bellamy? What on earth was he doing here? Lydia glanced over in intrigue as she watched the person in question, who just kind of kept to himself, careful to not even make eye contact with anyone.

Curtis Donovan decided that now was a good time to inform everyone that, "I shouldn't be here." He was a famous athletics star and he was basically set to run in the 2012 Olympics, but got busted a couple of months ago with drugs. So here he stood, suffering with the rest of the teens. Right prick he was to think he was any better.

"Look, we need to work as a team here!" Tony said in an attempt the regain control that failed miserably as Gary and Nathan were starting up what promised to be a seriously entertaining fight. "Hey! That's enough!"

"Can I move to a different group?" Curtis asked, "This isn't gonna work for me."

"Er, wot makes ya fink that ya better than os?" demanded Kelly, a seemingly nice girl, with a ridiculous accent. It was honestly so thick that Jadyn stared at her mouth agape.

Nathan stopped irritating Gary long enough to turn to Kelly and scoff, "What is that accent?!"

"Is that for real?" Lydia questioned, laughing lightly to herself.

"Er, if ya tryin' ta say somefin' than yah," said Kelly answered Lydia, albeit quite angrily.

"That's just a noise! Are we supposed to be able to understand her?" Nathan was clearly looking to get punched by this girl.

"Do ya understand that?" she snapped, giving him the finger.

Nathan grinned and placed his arm around Gary. "I think she likes me!" Gary, not taking kindly to the unwanted contact with the annoying little prick, and proceeded to try and strangle Nathan with his own jumpsuit. Tony, the probation worker, leapt over and pried Gary off him, who then tried to tear himself from the worker's arms. Nathan continued to agitate Gary even more afterwards. The whole thing was so ridiculous that the remaining five just had to laugh.

* * *

Eventually the probation worker calmed Gary down enough to readdress the teens, though Gary didn't take to Nathan very well afterwards. After he had finally finished, the probation worker then handed the seven young offenders each a paintbrush and a can of white paint and sent them down to the lake's bank, instructing them to paint the benches there.

After about ten minutes Gary stood up and spat, "Ah man, there's paint on my cap! This is bullshit!" before kicking his paint can into the lake, the white paint splattering all over the path. He stormed off in the direction of the community centre, also kicking an abandoned trolley over in the process.

"Oh, real mature," Lydia spat at him which earned her an obscene gesture in return. Lydia laughed in response and went back to painting her bench that she was sharing with Weird Kid…uh, Simon. She glanced up at him and noticed that he seemed to be wrapped up in his own world as he patiently painted each slat of the bench.

"What on earth are you here for?" Lydia questioned, quirking her eyebrow as did so. It had been a habit of hers since she was young, but she still took notice of it every time it happened. Simon glanced up at her, icy blue eyes delving into her deep brown. He seemed caught off guard, and his gaze was soon broken as he glanced around uneasy.

"I…could ask you the same thing," Simon finally said, this time catching Lydia off guard, who in turn stared at Simon, brows furrowed. She hadn't expected him to respond. She didn't know why, but she hadn't.

Nathan stood up and looked at Kelly. "So I'm guessing…shoplifting? No?"

Kelly didn't pause her painting as she said, "Don't act like ya know me cause ya don't."

"I'm just makin' conversation," replied Nathan, gesturing at the three of us. "This is our chance to network with other young offenders! We should be swappin' tips, brainstormin'! Come on, what did you do?"

Kelly sighed. "This girl called me a slag so I just got into a fight."

"Was this on The Jeremy Kyle Show?" asked Nathan, in complete seriousness.

"No it was at Argos," retorted Kelly.

"Oh, Argos," Nathan repeated. "You know what you shoulda done. You shoulda got one of them little pens they have and jabbed it in her eye!" Kelly just stared at him. He turned to Lydia. "What are you in for?"

Lydia glanced at Nathan, again quirking her eyebrow, why asking, "Excuse me?"

"You heard me," Nathan began again, brandishing his paintbrush at her throwing small droplets of paint as he did so, "What brings ya here to endure the pain of community service?" After deep consideration, Lydia finally sighed exasperatedly before answering.

"Destruction of public property. Or something like that," Lydia looked up to se Nathan looking rather unphased, minus the quirked eyebrow, which she couldn't decide if it was done of his own volition or if he was blatantly making fun of her, "I got into a brawl at the club I work at. Broke a bar stool over the guys back," At the strange look she received from not only Nathan, but also Kelly and Simon, she raised her hands defensively, "Hey, look, it's not my fault yeah. The guy made some very…inappropriate comments and I was a little drunk…or, more than a little."

The silence continued. At least until Nathan piped up again.

"What about you, Weird Kid? Don't take this the wrong way or anything, but you look like pantysniffer. Y'know," he mimed sniffing a pair of knickers. Charming he was.

"Why don't you leave it alone, yeah?" Lydia began again, this time coming to poor Simon's aid.

"I'm not a pantysniffer!" said Simon quietly, taking note from Lydia's bold example, "I'm not a pervert."

Nathan started making some really weird groaning noises, holding his paintbrush near his crotch and pretending to wank off with it. He moved slowly towards Simon, like he was trying to terrify an answer out of him. Sad to say that it worked, as Simon burst out with, "I tried to burn someone's house down!" to which Nathan raised his eyebrows and made a noise not unlike the air releasing slowly from a can of spray paint.

"What did you do?" asked Kelly.

"Me? I was done for eatin' some pick n' mix," answered Nathan.

Kelly scoffed while Lydia burst out into uncontrollable laughter. "That's bollocks!"

It started to thunder, and Nathan looked up at the sky. Lydia glanced up as well and noticed the clouds were doing something quite weird. The air itself felt somehow malevolent, powerful. "What is going on with this weather?" Just then, Tony the probation worker came round the corner.

"How did that happen?" he asked, pointing at the splatter of white paint that came from the can Gary had kicked over. The six remaining teens just stared at him. "I mean, you've been here five minutes," he continued, "Painting benches. How'd you screw that up?" Silence. "You tell me because I've got no idea." Suddenly, a huge chunk of ice the same size as a small boulder fell from the sky, completely demolishing a car behind Tony. Lydia and the others stared wide-eyed and confused, not to mention terrified.

"That's my car!" gasped Tony, pointing at it.

Nathan laughed. "Classic!" Another ice boulder landed behind him and Kelly, showering the teens in miniature hailstones and water. Lydia screamed, against her own volition. "Okay, so I'm a little bit freaked out!" Nathan admitted.

"What is that?!" demanded Alisha, looking toward the sky. Following her gaze, Lydia spoted amongst the grey clouds was one massive, jet black cloud that didn't look at all natural. Yet another chunk of ice fell, exploding in a bin next to Simon, who for some weird reason was filming everything with his mobile.

"Okay let's get inside, everyone!" ordered Tony. "Move!" By now, tons of the ice chunks were falling from the sky, exploding on the surrounding concrete. The six teens and their probation worker took off running toward the community centre in a frenzied panic.

Curtis was the first to reach the doors which, to everyone's dismay and panic were locked. Lydia was next to reach them and began to shake the doors violently, albeit quite unsuccessfully. Tony finally ran up after ages it seemed and began to fiddle with a ring of keys in a vain attempt to unlock the door. The screaming and yelling surrounding him probably did nothing for his concentration either.

"Come on!" Nathan shouted while Tony continued to fiddle with his keys.

"What is happening?" shrieked Alisha. "What is happening?"

"Open the damn door!" Lydia's mind was clouded with fear and panic and she turned to Simon, who was still filming the entire ordeal.

"What the hell are you doing?" Lydia screeched at Simon, who looked at her horrified, "Do you think that this is the right time for that?" Lydia, now seething ever so slightly, grasped for the mobile, getting into a physical struggle with her fellow young offender in the process and finally wretched it from Simon's hand.

What happened next was a complete blur. Lydia remembered wrestling the phone from Simon. She remembered the flash of light, the loud crash. And she remembered the lightning. Her whole body went numb and she felt the life being sucked from her and then it was like it was thrust back into her. Forcibly at that. The next thing she remembered was colliding with the concrete and looking up at the grey sky, thinking she was dead.

Lydia was the first to sit up, propping herself on her elbows, shaking her head to clear her mind. Everything felt fuzzy, tingly even, like she was completely numb to everything. She looked down and saw that in her left hand, she had Simon's mobile, firmly grasped, and in the other, she had Simon's arm, where she had gripped to get the phone away. Then she saw the rest of the teens, also collapsed on the ground, now all coming to and sitting up as well. She glanced again at the phone which, though unharmed, sent a spark though her arm. Tossing the phone away, she released her grip on Simon as well, complete with a, "Sorry mate."

"I feel really weird…" said Kelly, sounding dazed.

"That'll be the lightning," said Curtis.

"We should be dead," commented Simon.

"Why? Why would you say something like that?" Lydia questioned, giving Simon a look, "What the fuck?"

"A little reassurance might be nice," Nathan suggested, directing his comment at Tony, who had also been struck and was now also on the floor. "You're fine! Lookin' good!"

Tony twitched, and it looked like his face had collapsed on one side. "Wanker!"

Nathan blinked disbelievingly, as did the rest of the group. "Did he just call me a wanker?!" He clicked his fingers at Tony. "Hey, hello?"

"Is everyone alright?" Tony finally asked.

"We could have died, you dick!" snapped Alisha.

"Are you awight?" Kelly asked Tony, who twitched again. "Ya actin' like a freak."

"Maybe we should call it a day," he suggested.

"That'd probably best," Lydia remarked sarcastically, struggling to her feet. She stumbled around a bit before steadying herself and making her way to the locker room

* * *

"That was officially the weirdest day of my life," Lydia spoke aloud as she opened her locker and began to change into her "civilian" clothes. Stuffing the jumpsuit back on its hook in the locker, Lydia whipped around as Kelly burst out with a, "Whatcha say?" directed toward Alisha.

Alisha, who had remained silent, said, "I didn't say anything!" It had only been the three girls in the locker room, and Lydia had not heard anything. Weird.

Quickly exiting the locker room for fear of somehow becoming involved in the little spat, Lydia walked in the hallway of the community centre as Nathan, Curtis and Simon were all standing around

"What're we waiting for?" Lydia questioned looking around perplexed. She pulled her mobile from her pocket to check the time. 3:02.

"The probation worker," Nathan answered, suddenly throwing himself at the vending machine, trying to knock a can out for free.

"Alright," Lydia replied, laughing as Nathan repeatedly flung himself at the machine, "Where _is_ the probation worker, anyway?"

"I think there's something wrong with him," said Simon, looking up from his phone screen. "It was like he was having a spasm."

"He was probably just faking it, trying to get some compensation," said Nathan dismissively. "Cheap bastard."

"I don't think he was faking it," Simon said, quite frightened.

"And you'd know all about being…mental," Nathan said quietly, advancing on Simon, feigning a fit as he exclaimed "Wanker!"

"You twat," Lydia muttered scornfully.

"Are we waiting for something?" Alisha inquired, appearing out of nowhere.

"The probation worker," Curtis replied.

"I'm not hanging around for that dickhead!" she said discontentedly, turning on her heel and leaving. The other teens followed her lead and left the community centre behind. At least for the night.

* * *

**And the new stories just continue to flow. I have just fallen in love with this show, Misfits, and I think you'll all come to find out why. This story will most definitely take a lot more twists and turns than I usually expect, so I hope you'll all stick it out and read until the end. It should be a fun time. Well, read and review darlings.**

**Peace loves!**


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